Sir: The heteroatom-facilitated ortho-lithiation has be- come a powerful tool in synthetic aromatic chemistry. The preparation of an appropriately functionalized 1,2-disub- stituted derivative of benzene is often the starting point for the subsequent elaboration of bi- or multicyclic ring sys- tems. Some drawbacks of the currently available ortho- lithiation of N-monosubstituted benzamides, developed by Hauser et a1.,ls2 are the varying yields, strongly dependent ...
